Beacon Pointe Expands Again, Adds 5th Firm

Southern California-based Beacon Pointe Wealth Advisors has another notch on its belt.

The expansion-focused $6 billion wealth manager has added Santa Barbara-based Pacific Pointe to its roster, making it the fifth firm in Beacon Pointes growing stable, and the fourth in California.

The Santa Barbara-based wealth manager said in a statement that it is actively looking to expand and is interested in growth-oriented RIAs with $100 million to $300 million in assets under management. Pacific Pointe has approximately $175 million in assets under management.

Beacon Pointe has set a growth goal of one deal per quarter for the next 10 years, and, in addition to its California base, says it is also in negotiations with firms in Denver, Boston and Richmond, Va.

Whats more, unlike some acquisition-minded firms, Beacon Pointe, which uses an equity-partnership business model, isnt shying away from the term roll-up.

The reason that [term] makes firms cringe is because they try to position as something theyre not and when the media calls them out on it, they get upset, Matt Cooper, president of Beacon Pointe Advisors said in a statement. But the bottom line is that if we know the value we provide, and our advisor partners know it, and feel good about why they joined and how it helps them and their clients, then you can call us whatever you want as long as you acknowledge the good were doing.

Strategic mergers and acquisitions consultant David DeVoe, who worked with Beacon Pointe, described the transaction as a great example of how RIA's are intelligently using M&A to achieve their business goals. Beacon Pointe is leveraging the scale and infrastructure of its $6 billion business to provide [Pacific Pointe] with a more concentrated focus on accelerating growth.